The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley

Looking for a spooky read to offer an eleven or so year old girl? I just read one I'd recommend--The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley (Random House, 2011, ages 9-12, 192 pages).

For years the house on Hemlock Ave. stood empty and decaying. No-one managed to live there for long, and stories were told about green eyes that could sometimes be seen, looking out. Eleven year-old twins Anna and Hannah would have been happy to leave the house to its own devices forever. They had no desire to move into it, but move they must....an event welcomed by the ghost of a long dead girl with whom they share their new home.

Anna settles in nicely at school, but Hannah, in a different class from her sister for the first time ever, remains unhappy, and slowly the girls drift apart. Her unhappiness, and loneliness, makes her the prime target for the ghost, whose anger is as fresh as it was the day she died. But as Hannah unravels the mystery of what happened in the house on Hemlock Ave., the danger she is in grows, and so does the distance between herself and her twin...the ghost does not want to be left alone again.

I truly enjoyed the narrative device of this one. The reader is given both Hannah's point of view, and the perspective of the ghost....gradually and creepily, more and more clues are dropped, and more becomes clear. Because we have the ghost's point of view, it's not desperately scary--it's atmospherically spooky, but subtly so. It's a character-driven ghost story, more a psychosocial thriller rather than one that makes the reader jump with fright, which added to my personal enjoyment of it!

I always feel a tad uncertain reviewing books that have Mysteries in them, because I am both bad at figuring things out, and have a nasty habit of peeking at endings. So I can't speak to whether the mystery here was obvious to the meanest intelligence, or delightfully subtle and carefully constructed. All I can say is that I found it a page turner, and felt it all came together nicely!

(I'm adding this review to the round-up for the RIP IV (Readers Imbibing Peril) challenge, as I think it fits the bill very nicely indeed!)

A few things I find interetesting, and a cry for help

Here are a few things that together comprise a post of somewhat interesting things:

James Kennedy, he of the insane The Order of Odd-Fish (my review, which was great fun to write!), has, as many of you doubtless know, is organizing a 90 Second Newbery Film Festival. The Deadline has been extended to October 17th. Newbery Honor books are eligible too....

Now that back to school is over, more or less, it is time to start thinking about Holiday Gift Giving. And what better gift to give a ten or eleven year old boy than two books he'll love that you won in a giveaway? The Magnificent 12 books 1 and 2 giveaway ends tonight at 12 EST--head over here to find instructions and all the clues in one place, so you don't have to blog hop.

Speaking of back to school--I just got an email from Donors Choose full of requests from teachers in my state for basic things to make learning a hopeful thing for kids in impoverished areas. Hard not to chip in $10 to make sure the kids have paper, which one teacher requested.

And finally, a personal Cry for Help, because goodness knows I need it: I am transcribing my to-be-read list (the handwritten one that sits by the computer--sometimes it's faster to write than to open a new tab etc etc) and all was going well...until this:The Game of Tripls?????? The Gone of Tujds?????? Whah.

Yay! Tricia has solved it for me--it is The Game of Triumphs, by Laura Powell! Thanks so much!

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg. R. Fishbone

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg. R. Fishbone (Lee and Low Books, September 2011, ages 9-12, 352 pages).

There's a certain type of science fiction book for middle grade readers that is, perhaps, best described as "zany." These are the sort of books in which ordinary kids from earth find themselves plunged into intergalactic adventures that teeter between farce and light hearted humor-- like Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, or Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow. Galaxy Games: The Challengers is a truly fine example of this little genre, and it is easy as pie to imagine it delighting large numbers of young readers.

Tyler Sato--ordinary Japanese American kid. The "star" his aunt and uncle over in Japan bought him for his birthday (complete with genuine certificate!) is not so ordinary. In fact, "Ty Sato" isn't a star at all--it's an alien spacecraft piloted by a girl named M'Frozza (more tentacles than a squid, more slime than slug, but very friendly once you get to know her)!

M'Frozza didn't bring her spacecraft to Earth by chance (and she didn't tell her parents everything before she left home). Her arrival will enmesh Earth in a conflict on an unprecedented scale--The Galaxy Games, contests in which kids compete against each other to resolve inter-planetary conflicts.

And Ty, inextricably linked to the space craft by the wonders of the media, finds himself the leader of Earth's team of quirky kids of many lands. Before they have a chance to study the rule book, Ty and a bus load of his team-mates find themselves on the moon, playing for the future of Earth in a game of tic tac toe against hostile aliens who are messing with the rules something fierce....(literally fierce).

I'm thinking that one reason I enjoyed this one as much as I did is that the story takes its time before plunging into the wacky insanity of the Games themselves. We get to know Ty, and his Japanese cousin Daiki; we are introduced to M'Frozza and her crew well before they arrive at Earth. The players in the story become, as a result, interesting people, and the tension gets a chance to build nicely and loomingly (I like a nice looming tension, as long as the characters aren't actually unhappy, which these ones aren't).

Fishbone has a deft hand with humor, too--from taking the mickey out of talk-shows and advertising on the particular side of things to reveling in the absurdities of the larger situation he's created for poor old Ty (and all of us here on Earth). There are silliness-es, but the sense I got was that of the author enjoying himself, rather than forcing absurdity into the story to please a young audience (Michael Grant's Mysterious 12 series, for example, gives me the same impression).

If you want harder-core middle grade sci fi with aliens, try The Softwire series by PJ Haarsma (the first book of which is Virus on Orbis). But if you want light sci fi fun for the 6th grader, do consider this one! I am going to try really really hard to get my recalcitrant 11 year old son to at least try it....

(and, as an added bonus, there's an instructive author's note about Japan).

This is my first book review of an offering from Tu Books, an imprint of Lee and Low specializing in multicultural science fiction and fantasy for kids (who sent me my review copy). I'll look forward to more! I'll also find and bring home, as an offering to my eight year old, Fishbone's first book--Penguins of Doom.

Waiting on Wednesday-- The Green Man, by Michael Bedard

Today I have both (finally!) children back in school; two different ones now. I'll be glad when these first weeks of doing things for the first time are over, and we have our path habits in place...and I can get cracking on the mounting pile of books read but not reviewed, and repainting the dining room so as to move the tbr pile back into the dining room because I have a nervous (justifiably so, I'm afraid) feeling that BOOKS ARE CREEPING AWAY from the main piles and going off to live lives of their own in dark and hidden places and I will never find them. (The ARCs tend to clump together a bit more solidly than other books, which is one mercy).

But anyway. Since thinking about the books I actually have is making me feel anxious, the obvious thing to do is to look forward to a book I don't have. Today's book is The Green Man, by Michael Bedard, from Tundra Books. Like last week, I've boldened the bits that make me want it (sorry, no picture seems to be available yet...it's not out till April, 2012)

Teenaged O – never call her Ophelia – is about to spend the summer with her aunt Emily [my sister's name, which predisposes me in the book's favor]. Emily is a poet and the owner of an antiquarian book store [what's not to like], The Green Man [I'm fascinated by Green Man stories]. A proud, independent woman, Emily’s been made frail by a heart attack. O will be a help to her. Just how crucial that help will be unfolds as O first tackles Emily’s badly neglected home, then the chaotic shop [see comments on my own house, above. Clearly this is a wish fulfillment book for me]. But soon she discovers that there are mysteries and long-buried dark forces that she cannot sweep away, though they threaten to awaken once more. At once an exploration of poetry [poetry's nice], a story of family relationships [I'm happy to read about families], and an intriguing mystery, The Green Man is Michael Bedard at his finest.

As an added incentive for me personally, Michael Bedard has also written a book called Stained Glass, about which I know nothing and don't have time to check right this sec because my lunch break is almost over, but I like stained glass lots.

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Alice in Time, by Penelope Bush, for Timeslip Tuesday

Alice in Time, by Penelope Bush (Holiday House, 2011/2010 in the UK, younger YA, 196 pages)

Fourteen-year old Alice is not best pleased with her life. Even after seven years, she resents her mother for divorcing her father, leaving Alice to take much more responsibility for her little brother Rory than she thinks is fair. There's not much money, and her mum gets on her nerves. At school she's the target of the class queen-bee mean girl, Sasha. Even though she seems (maybe, she hopes) to be attracting the attention of a cute new boy, it doesn't look like she'll be able to get out of house (what with babysitting Rory while her mum works all hours) long enough to see for sure!

Then Alice falls hard from a merry-go-round in the park (this sort of merry-go-round, which sadly are deemed too dangerous for kids these days in the US, but boy were they fun). When Alice recovers, she finds to her amazement that she is seven years old again. Her parents are still together, and Rory has not yet been born (although it's clear he will be soon).

Obviously she must put things right, and keep her miserable 14-year old life from happening....So she makes a list:

1. Stop Sooty (Alice's beloved cat) from being run over
2. Stop Mum and Dad from splitting up
3. Find a way back to reality
4. Make Sasha's life hell

But 14-year-old Alice gradually realizes that her seven year old self wasn't exactly the best observer of human nature (being seven and all). And (thankfully, because Alice is more than a little self-centered), she realizes that the one thing she can really change is herself....(although she does (slight spoiler put in on behalf of cat lovers) save Sooty). Happily for Alice's mother and Rory, their lives are made rather better in the process of Alice-changing too!

It is not entirely Alice's fault that at fourteen, when we first meet her, she is not a deeply likable character. She is being asked to shoulder a lot of responsibility, which began when her mother suffered serious depression after Rory was born, and her mother, determined not to speak ill of her father, has let Alice continue in willful blindness about her father's shortcomings, and why they divorced. Likewise, the social minefield at school that happened when Alice was seven, and which led directly to Sasha's enmity was a tricky one for a kid to manage successfully.

Fortunately, seven-year old Alice, seeing things through older eyes, does a lot of growing up--instead of feeling sorry for herself, she learns to take action. Although the ending is rather dizzying, when Alice returns to her present to find many things changed, it's rather satisfying (especially for Alice's Mum and Rory).

I love the premise of this one, and thought Penelope Bush did a lovely job with the disorientation of a teenager back in her childhood body, having her hair washed for her, heading off to primary school, and being given back the loving relationship with her mother that her adolescent discontent had spoiled.
Despite the fact that Alice will never be a personal favorite character, and I thought it took too long for her fourteen-year-old self to get whacked on the head (it happens on page 83), this was a book I read in a single sitting, with great interest and enjoyment.

It's a younger YA book, inasmuch as Alice is just beginning the YAish romantic relationship thing--so I'd have no compunctions about giving this to an older middle grade kid (ie, an 11 year old). In fact, that younger reader would probably enjoy the book more--an older reader might be too cynical to believe the changes wrought by Alice's revelations about herself, her family, and her friends.

(side note for those irked by the Americanization of English books--I didn't notice much attempt to change the original UK text--it would have been an incredibly tricky job, what with pubs (Alice's father), and all the different school year terminology. However, I bet the playground merry-go-round was a roundabout!).

Other reviews at Ms. Yingling Reads and Becky's Book Reviews

Book Blogger Appreciation Week shortlists are up, and my blog is there (!)

Thanks so much to whoever nominated my blog as Best Kid Lit Blog for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards. Charlotte's Library reached the short list, in the fine company of The O.W.L. and There's a Book, and I feel honored and flattered (and somewhat taken aback) to be there!

Now until September 10th, you can log in to vote for the many categories of book blog awards at http://bbaw.heroku.com. You only need a Twitter id or a google id.

And the awards are by no means the be and end all for BBAW....there are lots of fun things planned for the week of September 12 -16th!

Hatch! by Roxie Munro, for Non-Fiction Monday

It says right up there on my header that I review science fiction and fantasy for kids, and I mostly do. But I also enjoy taking part in the Kidlitosphere's Non-Fiction Monday round-ups (in part because I regret having utterly ignored the non-fiction sections of all my childhood libraries, and in part because my own kids, happily, do not suffer from the same myopia). Today's round-up is at Playing By the Book.

This morning I offer Hatch! written and illustrated by Roxie Munro (Marshall Cavendish, 2011, 40 pages).

Before you have a bird, you have to have an egg. Hatch! introduces young readers to a multitude of bird species from around the world by first showing full page picture of their eggs--"Can you guess whose eggs these are?" A paragraph of clues follows...and then a double page spread showing the bird in its habitat. It's a very friendly, inviting design--the curiosity of the reader is piqued, and then clearly written, simple yet detailed, information is provided by words and pictures.

As well as introducing the birds qua birds, Munro also sets each one neatly into its habitat, explaining in words and pictures where they live, and the other creatures that share their world. And the very last page offers places where one can find out more about birds, and a list of fun bird words to learn.

Fascinating things I learned: when Baltimore orioles migrate, they fly mainly at night (possibly to beat the traffic???)

The eggs of the black-legged kittiwake come in all sorts of distinctive splotch patterns--so the the parents can tell their own nests from the hundreds and even thousands of other eggs in the same colony. (If I was a kittiwake, I would still feel nervous--I don't trust my splotch recognition skills). Owl eggs are white so their parents can find them in the dark (this I could cope with).

A cactus wren has two or three clutches a season, and sometimes an older sibling from the first brood will babysit (only one more year until the my own first brood, as it were, will be old enough to do the same for my second).

We enjoyed this one!

(review copy received from the publisher)

This Sunday's round up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Hi everyone! Here are the middle grade science fiction and fantasy blog postings I found this week---please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Heise Reads & Recommends

The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Bart's Bookshelf

Floors, by Patrick Carman, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge, at By Singing Light

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente, at Finding Wonderland

Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld, at Book Yurt and Bart's Bookshelf

Happenstance Found, by P.W. Catanese, at Abby the Librarian

The History Keepers: The Storm Begins, by Damian Dibben, at The Book Zone (For Boys)

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Bookalicious

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, at Challenging the Bookworm

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford, at Musings of a Restless Mind

Janitors, by Ty Whitesides, at Elana Johnson

The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen, at Bea's Book Nook

The Magnificent 12: The Call, and The Trap, by Michael Grant, at The Book Smugglers, and The Call at Book Dreaming

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Bookends

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog and Page in Training

Return to Exile, by E. J. Patten, at Other Stuff Exists

Sally's Bones, by MacKenzie Cadenhead, at Wicked Awesome Books

The Scarcrow and His Servant, by Philip Pullman, at Fantasy Literature

Small Persons With Wings, by Ellen Booraem, at Jean Little Library

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley, at Sonderbooks

Smells Like Treasure, by Suzanne Selfors, at Donna St. Cyr

The Softwire, Books 1 and 2--Virus on Orbis, and Betrayal on Orbis, by P.J. Haarsma, at Books and Movies

Stinkbomb, by Rob Stevens, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Steph Su Reads and Libri Dilectio

The Wikkeling, by Steven Arnston, at books4yourkids

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Figment

Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke, at Wandering Librarians

Authors and Interviews:

Julia Durango (Sea of the Dead--my review) at Following My Dreams -- she's currently working on a mg fantasy novel set in the Andean highlands in collaboration with Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I'm sold!

Sue Perkins (the forthcoming Spirit Stealer) at Rebecca Ryals Russell

Other things of interest:

Back to school time is here! Here's a post on sci fi books for kids with schools at Suite 101, and here's a post about education in fantasy books at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Tablet has a feature on "Going Golem" (not the Lord of the Rings Golem, but Jewish golems in children's books)

Here's my compilation of the new releases of mg sff for the beginning of September.

And don't forget, all you mg sff reading and reviewing folks, that the time to put your name in the ring for the Cybils Awards is Now! (lots more people volunteer to be panelists than there are slots for, and I know picture books and YA are always inundated, but I am really curious about what happens with mg sff. Is there a glut or a dearth of people making it their first choice?)

Finally-- two people contacted me who I could not help, and I was wondering if any of you all could!

Request the first: A teacher of 4th and 5th graders is doing unit on archetypal characters ala Joseph Campbell. She's seeking a sci fi/fantasy short story to illustrate the archetype of the Threshold Guardian-- "The threshold is the gateway to the new world the hero must enter to change and grow.

 The threshold guardian is usually not the story's antagonist. Only after this initial test has been surpassed will the hero face the true contest and the arch-villain."

She's also looking for stories illustrating the shapeshifter and the shadow characters.

Request the second: a blog reader is looking a time travel book at least ten year old, shelved near Katherine Paterson. She says: "The title that I "remember" was Inbetween Time, which apparently is non-existent in the book world. The book was part of a trilogy series and the main character was named Strauss and a girl. The basic story line was that a girl would travel back in time and she fell in love with Strauss. I think it was based in the 1800's when she did travel back. Basically, she had to decide rather to stay with him or come back to her own time because he could not travel with her."

Any thoughts?

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists

Nursery Rhyme Comics -- "fifty classic verses illustrated in comics form by today's greatest cartoonists!" (2011, First Second Books)

This is a extraordinarily entertaining book. Fifty great illustrators, including many familiar to me, such as Nick Bruel, Jules Feiffer, Eleanor Davis, David Macaulay, and Gene Luen Yang, to name just a few, offer interpretations of classic nursery rhymes in wonderfully entertaining graphic novel style. Some interpretations are Dark (the introduction of a hungry wolf family into This Little Piggie by Cyril Pedrosa makes for a marvelous little story--not all the pigs make it safely home....), some are lovely and evocative (Stephanie Yue makes Hickory Dickory Dock into a mouse world fantasy), and David Macaulay's London Bridge is Falling Down offers three pages of the wonderful detail one expects from him. Some are aimed at young readers of picture books, some seem created for older readers And some (like James Stern's take on Jack Be Nimble) use the graphic panel form to add snarky and amusing subtext to the original verse.

I could go on and on....but the short answer is--this is Great Fun! It is much like a gourmet box of mixed chocolates--lots of variety, with something for every taste (although of course not everyone will like everything, and there were a few that didn't appeal to me), and makes a great gift!

If you feel that your child has reached the advanced age of 11 or so without a sufficient familiarity with classic nursery rhymes--give them this book! Or leave it on your coffee table, and watch them pick it up over and over again....(mine did this...). (Any adult guest worth their salt will probably pick it up too).

If you want a fun book to share with students that opens up imaginative possibilities, maybe leading to a Nursery rhyme illustration project of their own, give them this book.

If you want something fun and different to share in exploratory delight with a younger child--this is the book!

If you want a book to give to an adult friend with a sense of humor who likes graphic novels, but are uncertain about what books they already have, this might well be a good choice!

Personally, I myself am especially fond of this book because it came on Monday last week, and we decided to go out to eat, forgetting that half our town had no electricity...the place was mobbed, and our order got lost in the shuffle...hours passed, but I had Nursery Rhyme Comics with me, and it proved invaluable in keeping my own boys happy. And then they gave us our meal for free. Had we not been so pleasant about it (thanks in large part to having had a book like this with us) this might not have happened.

Thanks, First Second Books, for the review copy!

The Kidlitosphere's Poetry Friday Round-Up is at The Miss Rumphius Effect today!

New releases of middle grade fantasy and science fiction--the beginning of September, 2011

I've decided to make a change to my new release posts. In the interest of saving myself a considerable chunk of time, I've decided to confine these posts to the middle-grade sci fi/fantasy titles (at least for the moment. Maybe someday Blogger will be more cooperative, and it will all be easier, and I'll reconsider...). A number of other bloggers highlight the new releases of YA books, and so that part of my list seems a bit redundant, and all the YA books made for rather huge and monstrous lists to read, anyway.

As is the case for all my new release posts, I take my information from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs are lifted straight from Amazon/Goodreads. Since I haven't read all these, I can't guarantee they are all sci fi/fantasy, nor can I guarantee that this is all new releases there are!

I rather like the sound of The Dead Kid Detective Agency, myself--anyone read it yet?

13 GIFTS by Wendy Mass "When Tara, a self-proclaimed shrinking violet, steals the school mascot, a goat, in order to make some friends with the popular crowd and gets caught, she gets herself in a heap of trouble. In addition, her parents decide that instead of taking her on their summer trip to Madagascar to study the courtship rituals of the Bamboo Lemur, she must go stay with her aunt, uncle, and bratty cousin Emily St. Claire in Willow Falls. Tara thinks it's a good time to start over; she'll be turning 13 after all, so she might as well make the best of it and perhaps even attempt to break out of her shell (in a non-criminal manner). What Tara doesn't know is that this charmed town has something big in store for her on her 13th birthday. It's not a typical birthday. But then again, nothing is Willow Falls is exactly typical!"

BATTLE OF THE ZOMBIES: AN AWFULLY BEASTLY BUSINESS by The Beastly Boys "In the RSPCB's most dangerous mission to date, Ulf the werewolf visits a haunted castle to investigate some very spooky goings-on. But little does he know that he's heading into a trap: the evil Baron Marackai is lying in wait with a beastly plan - and this time he's got help from the dead! Can Ulf unravel the ghostly mystery, or will he end up as zombie food? The future of the RSPCB depends on him..."



BENJAMIN FRANKLINSTEIN MEETS THE FRIGHT BROTHERS by Matthew McElligott & Larry Tuxbury "Last month, Benjamin Franklin came back from the dead and moved into Victor Godwin's downstairs apartment. Since then, life has gotten even weirder. Vampires are stalking Philadelphia, a strange pair of bike shop owners are after Ben, and a shadowy figure known only as the Emperor may be plotting it all.

Together, Ben, Victor and Scott face some baffling questions. Why was Ben really awakened? Who is the Emperor? And are vampires really stalking downtown Philadelphia? The fate of the city - and perhaps the word - hangs in the balance!"

THE CHEERLEADERS OF DOOM: N.E.R.D.S. by Michael Buckley "Matilda “Wheezer” Choi, the asthmatic who can fly and kick butt courtesy of her nanobyte-enhanced inhalers, loves pro wrestling and hates anything “girlie.” Maybe that’s because she grew up with six brothers—or maybe it’s because her home life has become a battle zone in the conflict between her parents. Unfortunately for Wheezer, when a former member of NERDS turned villain gets extensive plastic surgery in order to become a cheerleader, Matilda must swallow her pride to successfully infiltrate the squad.

The newest supervillain, Gerdie Baker, assisted by the criminal mastermind Simon, has created a device that opens portals to other worlds, which she and the other cheerleaders have been pillaging. But the alternate realities are starting to get awfully close together, so it’s up to Wheezer and the NERDS to stop the cheerleaders before the worlds collide."

CREEPED OUT: MONSTRUM HOUSE by Z. Fraillon "Jasper and his friends are about to take on their biggest challenge. They have to find a monster that has been set loose somewhere in the Monstrum House school grounds ...before it finds them. If they fail, they'll have their creepy teacher Stenka to answer to. Or perhaps they'll be eaten by the monster. It's hard to know which is worse. And you thought your school was bad."



THE DEAD KID DETECTIVE AGENCY by Evan Munday "Thirteen-year-old October Schwartz is new in town; short on friends and the child of a clinically depressed science teacher, she spends her free time in the Sticksville Cemetery and it isn’t long before she befriends the ghosts of five dead teenagers, each from a different era of the past. Using October’s smarts and the ghosts’ abilities to walk through walls and roam around undetected, they form the Dead Kid Detective Agency, a group committed to solving Sticksville’s most mysterious mysteries. So when the high school’s beloved French teacher dies in a suspicious car accident, it provides the agency with its first bona fide case, putting them in the midst of a murder plot thick with car chases, cafeteria fights, and sociopathic math teachers, and sending them on an adventure that might just uncover the truth about a bomb that exploded 40 years ago."

DESTINY THE ROCK STAR FAIRY: RAINBOW MAGIC by Daisy Meadows "Destiny the Rock Star Fairy has a very important job. She helps rock stars everywhere shine! But when her magic is stolen, everything starts to go wrong. Even Rachel and Kirsty's favorite music group, The Angels, is in trouble! Everything at their special holiday concert is all mixed up.

Can the girls team up with Destiny to find her magic in time? Or will The Angels' holiday concert be a merry mess?

Find the magic items in all three stories inside this Rainbow Magic Special Edition and help save the holiday concert!"

FLOORS by Patrick Carman "Charlie had his chocolate factory. Stanley Yelnats had his holes. Leo has the wacky, amazing Whippet Hotel.

The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him . . . boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake . . . and so is Leo's own future!

Ghost Hunt 2 by Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson "Ghost Hunt 2 has more ghosts, more cases, and more chills!

Is Alcatraz prison really haunted by ghostly inmates--or is something in the air causing hallucinations? Can the ocean be haunted? Are glowing red eyes in the woods just an animal--or something more sinister? Unlock these mysteries and many more in this chilling collection of terrifying tales based on real cases from The Atlantic Paranormal Society.

Find more details and tips on ghost hunting than ever before!"

HAYWIRED by Alex Keller "In this steampunk fairy tale set in an alternate world, things are not always what they seem. Ludwig is a lonely boy who is shocked to discover that his father, Mandrake, whom he trusts with all his heart, has been deceiving him for years. Far from being the good-hearted scientist Ludwig admires, Mandrake instead has been busy creating an army of HELOTs, sinister machines that duplicate themselves and do the bidding of their master in order to wage a brutal war. First Ludwig takes refuge with a traveling circus; then he sails with adventurers and pirates and entertains foreign royalty. Ultimately his quest leads to a rebellion against his father, the deranged Mandrake, and the evil HELOTs so that peace may be brought to his country."

THE LAST COUNCIL: AMULET by Kazu Kibuishi "Emily and her friends think they'll find the help they need in Cielis, but something isn't right. Streets that were once busy are deserted, and the townspeople who are left live in crippling fear. Emily is escorted to the Academy where she's expected to compete for a spot on the Guardian Council, the most powerful Stonekeepers. But as the number of competitors gets smaller and smaller, a terrible secret is slowly uncovered--a secret that, if left buried, means certain destruction of everything Emily fights for."


LOCKED IN: MONSTRUM HOUSE, by Z. Fraillon "From the creators of Zac Power, Monstrum House combines a remote boarding school, quirky kids and monsters that go bump in the night! Jasper McPhee is always getting into trouble. That's why he's been sent to the Monstrum House School for Troubled Children. But there's something very strange about Monstrum House. For a start, the students have to stand barefoot in the snow every day. There's also the creepy feeling that the teachers can read your thoughts. Oh, and the fact that the school is crawling with monsters."


THE NEXT ADVENTURE: PILOT & HUXLEY by Dan McGuiness "Pilot & Huxley are back in another zany adventure!

Pilot and Huxley just want to get home, but an unexpected glitch hurtles them into the holiday lands instead. Now they're stuck in a bizarre world where ghouls and zombies in Halloween Land are friendly, and Santa and his elves in Christmas Land are evil. Will the boys make it out alive? Can they find a way back to Earth? Is a bowl of noodles a deadly weapon? Find out inside!"

NOTES FROM A TOTALLY LAME VAMPIRE by Tim Collins With his newfound vampire powers and his girlfriend Chloe, Nigel Mullet is finally happy and popular as the school year begins. But then a new guy, Jason, appears at school. All the girls think he’s better looking than Nigel. He’s definitely stronger and faster than Nigel. And he’s just stolen Nigel’s girlfriend. What’s a totally lame vampire to do? Write bad poetry, get regularly beaten up by his little sister now that he's too weak to retaliate, and spy on his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. . . . Eventually Nigel follows Jason and his family to the park in the middle of the night and is stunned to see them all transform into werewolves.

Will the truth win Chloe back? Or will Nigel be left howling at the moon in frustration?

THE PRINCESS CURSE by Merrie Haskell Twelve princesses suffer from a puzzling (if silly) curse, and anyone who ends it will win a reward. Reveka, a sharp-witted and irreverent apprentice herbalist, wants that reward. But her investigations lead to deeper mysteries and a daunting choice—will she break the curse at the peril of her own soul?

RETURN TO EXILE, by E. J. Patten Eleven years ago, a shattered band of ancient hunters captured an unimaginable evil and Phineas T. Pimiscule rescued his nephew, Sky, from the wreckage of that great battle. For eleven years, Sky Weathers has studied traps, puzzles, science, and the secret lore of the Hunters of Legend, believing it all a game. For eleven years, Sky and his family have hidden from dark enemies while, unbeknownst to Sky, his uncle Phineas sacrificed everything to protect them. For eleven years, Sky Weathers has known nothing of that day. But on the eve of Sky’s twelfth birthday and his family’s long-awaited return to Exile, everything changes. Phineas has disappeared, and Sky finds himself forced to confront the mysterious secrets he’s denied for so long: why did his family leave Exile on that day so long ago? What, exactly, has Phineas been preparing him for? And, the biggest mystery of all, who is Sky really and why does everyone want to kill him?!

SALLY'S BONES by MacKenzie Cadenhead 2 Months, 28 Days, 9 Hours, and 12 minutes earlier...Sally Simplesmith's life changed forever. She came face-to-face with death - a delightful, dearly departed little dog she lovingly calls Bones. But when the cadaverous canine is accused of a crime he didn't commit, Sally decides to solve the case herself! Does Sally have what it takes to fetch a thief?

Sally's Bones is the impossibly possible tale of a girl, a crime, and a lovably lifeless, decidedly dead dog.

SECRETS OF THE CROWN: THE FAMILIARS by Adam Jay Epstein & Andrew Jacobson. "When human magic disappears suddenly from Vastia, it falls on the familiars, Aldwyn the telekinetic cat, Skylar the know-it-all blue, jay, and Gilbert the gullible tree frog--to find the Crown of the Snow Leopard, an ancient relic that can reverse the curse. They learn that the only way to do this is by following in the purple paw prints of Aldwyn's father, who'd gone missing while searching for the Crown years earlier. This magical spirit trail extends into the Beyond, where our heroes encounter new enemies and danger, while Aldwyn learns about his mysterious past.

THE SIGN OF THE BLACK ROCK: THREE THIEVES by Scott Chantler. "Young readers (and adults, too) will feel transported by the clever, intricate plotline and superb, sweeping illustrations of this second title in the Three Thieves series. The action resumes as our three goodhearted fugitives stop at a roadside inn during a ferocious thunderstorm. Narrow escapes ensue as Grig, the scheming and selfish innkeeper, endeavors to capture the trio and secure a reward from the Queen. Tensions mount further as the Queen's Dragons arrive at the tavern, hot on the trail of the fugitives and immediately suspicious of the smarmy Grig. Will Grig get his due? Will the fugitives escape? And why hasn't Grig's gentle wife spoken a word in ten years? You can bet she's got a secret."

SUPER CHICKEN NUGGET BOY AND THE MASSIVE MEATLOAF MAN MANHUNT by Josh Lewis. First the Furious Fry, then an angry army of eggplants, then a planet of pizzas in need--it seems that no villian is too tough, nor job too big for the best of the breaded: Super Chicken Nugget Boy. But what happens when the biggest, smelliest most horrifying thing ever to haunt the woods emerges to face our hero? It's the Nugget's most fearsome adversary yet. Bigger than sasqatch. Smellier than the abominable snowman. It's Massive Meatloaf Man! Will the Nugget and his faithful sidekick Arnie survive? Or will they become the stuff of campfire legend?

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT 3:15 SEASON 1, by Patrick Carman Read, watch, and listen to each chilling story in 15 minutes or less!

3:15 means several things. It's a time when things go bump in the night. A place where spooky stories find a home. A feeling . . . that chill running down your spine.

It means 10 terrifying tales that you'll experience in 3 parts: A frightful audio introduction. Several spooky pages of text. And a creepy video conclusion you can watch online. All in 15 minutes or less.

Step into the world of 3:15 and you'll meet Cody Miller, whose greed leads to a grave mistake; Emma Franklin, who learns that not all childhood fears are foolish; Dylan Smith, who should know better than to show off his snowboarding skills on a haunted mountain; and more.

Don't get too attached to any of them.

Features "Night on the Dredge," a new story set in the world of Skeleton Creek!

THE WHITE WAND: WITCHES AT WAR! by Martin Howard
"Esmelia Sniff and her much more talented apprentice Sam are back in the second volume of the much-praised Witches at War! series. Armed with the Black Wand of Ohh Please Don't Turn Me Into Aaaargggh...Ribbett, evil Diabolica Nightshade is creating an army of witches to take over the world. It's up to Esmelia and her apprentice Sam to stop her, but the only thing that can stand against the Black Wand is...another wand of equal power. Can Sam and Esmelia put their differences aside for long enough to uncover the ancient spell to create such a wand? What will Sam discover about her past? And will Esmelia ever take off that false beard?"

THE WICKEDEST WITCH: WITCHES AT WAR! by Martin Howard The first book in a major new fiction series for children aged 8-12 * An hilariously funny and entertaining story of the world of witches * Brilliantly illustrated by Colin Stimpson The headline in The Cackler is grim. Old Biddy Vicious, the Most Superior High and Wicked Witch and owner of the Black Wand of Ohh Please Don't Turn Me Into Aaaaarghhh...Ribbett is dead. But witches like their news on the dark side and there is great anticipation in the witching world. After all, there will need to be a new leader and a diabolical competition to find out who is to become the new Most Superior High and Wicked Witch. Esmeila Sniff fancies her chances, after all she is exceedingly wicked and has warts in all of the right places. As she and her surprisingly cheerful apprentice, Sam, set off to find three other witches to nominate her for the job, the meanest and the baddest witches in the world are hatching their own devious plan to become The Wickedest Witch...

WITH THE ENEMY: TOMORROW GIRLS by Eva Gray In a terrifying new world, four girls must depend on each other if they want to survive.

Evelyn has always suspected that things are more sinister and more complicated than they seem. Now that Maddie has been kidnapped, Rosie, Louisa, and the boys are paying more attention to Evelyn's theories. As the group makes their way toward war-torn Chicago, they're under constant threat of capture. Danger and dark surprises lurk around every twist of the road.

Evelyn knows they need a solid plot to find Maddie. But what the group comes up with may be their riskiest plan yet: infiltrating the Alliance itself. Even Evelyn has her doubts. Can they save Maddie before it's too late?

The Queen of Water, by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango

Sometimes I'm lucky enough to meet a book that is my personal ideal of what a novel is supposed to be. Riveting and utterly engaging, well-written (no little awkwardness-es prose-wise throwing you out of the story), and, most importantly, tilting your framework of the world so that suddenly you see and think about things differently, and you are (you hope) a little bit wiser. These books aren't necessarily the books I love in a cuddly way, but they are the books that I put down thinking how very glad I am to have read them.

The Queen of Water, by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango (Delacorte, 368 pages, YA) was such a book for me. It is a novel based on the true story of Maria Virginia Farinango's life, that tells how she was taken at the age of seven from her home, in one of the poorest indigenous communities in Ecuador, into de facto enslavement working for a mestizo family (the ruling class, descended from the Spaniards). But the harsh words and harsh beatings that came her way, and the unbearable hurt of thinking her parents did not want her, were not enough to quench her spirit and her determination.

She managed to cobble together an education for herself, while still a child caring for two other children, and doing all the manual labor of the household. But as the years roll on, the reader, along with Virginia, wonders what sort of future she will have--will she be able to escape slavery? and if so, where will she go? and who will she be? She is no longer at home in the world of her family (she has forgotten how to speak her first language), but because of who she is, she cannot be fully part of the mestizo world.

Knowing that Virginia is one of the authors of this story strongly implies from the get-go that the ending will not be heartbreaking! But there are no guarantees about the journey....and the tension of not knowing what was going to happen to this little girl I found myself caring so much about kept me glued to the story. I was uncertain about whether I wanted to read this or not--I do not like depressing books in which children suffer. But Virginia was never beaten in spirit. She is stubborn, she is smart, and she refuses to submit passively to fate. In consequence, although there were heartbreaking moments, and things that made me furious, there was no despair.

Laura Resau, who shaped Maria Virginia Farinango's story into a novel, has done a superb job here--Virginia comes through the pages as one of the most vivid people I've met in ages, and her story is full of metaphor, and detail, and emotional intensity balanced with relative calm. And when I put it down, not only was I really, really happy for Virginia, but I knew a heck of a lot more than I did last week about race and class in late 20th-century Ecuador.

My world is now a little bit bigger, and I feel more determined to make the most of the opportunities afforded to me in my own life. It was a privilege to have shared Virginia's journey with her, and a pleasure to have had the chance to cheer her on. And that's why I'm most awfully glad to have read this book!

The Queen of Water is marketed as older YA, which is natural-- it take Virginia's story into her teenage years, and then ends as she is on the cusp of adulthood. But I hope this story finds adult readers too.

The cover, by the way, shows Maria Virginia herself (although I didn't find anything in the book that said so, which I think it too bad), and is a lovely picture....but I think this one, which wasn't used, is more in keeping with the image of her I have taken from the book!

Lots more pictures, including a painting they didn't end up using, can be found at this page on Laura Resau's blog, where Laura also explains, down at the end of the post, why her name is first when it is Maria Virginia's story.

Here are some other reviews, at A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, Crazy Quilts, and Not Acting My Age

The Haunting of Charity Delafield, by Ian Beck (Waiting on Wednesday)

Over at Breaking the Spine, Jill hosts a meme called "Waiting on Wednesday," where bloggers share the books that they are looking forward to. Here's my pick for this week, a book that comes out in the UK in November, and which might well end up on my Christmas list (even though the Book Depository offers free shipping from the UK, does anyone else have a residual feeling that it is somehow decedant to order new books from overseas just for one's own reading pleasure?)

The Haunting of Charity Delafield, by Ian Beck. I have en-bolded the things that made me want it!

"A magical, enchanting tale, with stunning illustrations that will transport you into another world.

Flame-haired Charity Delafield has grown up in a vast, isolated house - most of which she is forbidden to explore - with her fiercely strict father. With only her kindly nurse, Rose, and her cat Mr Tompkins for company, she knows very little of the outside world - or of her own family's shadowy past. What she does know is that she is NEVER to go outside unsupervised. And she is NEVER to over-excite herself, because of the mysterious 'condition' that she has been told she suffers from.

But Charity has a secret. All her life, she has had the same strange dream - a dream of a dark corridor, hidden somewhere in the house. Then, one day, Charity stumbles across the corridor. It leads to a door . . . and suddenly she realises things are not quite what they seem."

Sounds good, yes? I realize that wanting a book because it has a "flame-haired" main character is a bit shallow, but there it is. Especially after reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, I have wanted to be flame-haired myself....or at least burnished chestnut...

A Long, Long Sleep, by Anna Sheehan, for Timeslip Tuesday

A Long, Long Sleep, by Anna Sheehan (Candlewick, YA, August 2011, 352 pages)

Rose has slept in stasis for sixty-two years. When she is woken by a boy who has found her lying in a forgotten basement, she finds that the world has been shaken by the cataclysms of the Dark Times, her parents are dead, and she is heir to their interplanetary corporate empire, Unicorp. She is still sixteen, but the boy she loved when she went to sleep is long gone.

Now Rose, set apart by her strange ghost-like state and by her inheritance, must struggle to make sense of this future world. She clings to Bran, the boy who woke her, and gradually builds a friendship with another boy, Otto, the product of an experiment with exo-planetary DNA, who knows what is to be a freak, like Rose is. And all the while Rose must struggle to make sense of the dark shadows her childhood...

Before the assassin who is hunting her can kill her.

Although there are many sci fi touches, such as the stas tubes and other futuristic technology, and the colonization of other planets and moons, these elements don't dominate the story. It is, instead, a character-driven novel. Rose's dislocation, her struggle to make sense of the future world and to find a place for herself, are the heart of the matter, and, since her story is told in the first person, the reader shares her confusion and gradual understanding intimately. And although there are nail-biting moments where the action proceeds rapidly, it is Rose as a person, a troubled, unhappy, and lonely stranger in a strange land, who is always at the story's center. The bitter poignancy of her situation is moving (although I did, I must confess, want to shake a bit more gumption into Rose from time to time), and Sheehan doesn't make the mistake of rushing to resolution with unsatisfying solutions.

I myself like character driven stories, and enjoyed this one just fine. Those who want all their world-building T's crossed and I's dotted might not find what they are looking for here, but, since we are seeing things through Rose's sleep-befuddled eyes, I had no problem with this, and indeed, think it leaves things nice and open for a sequel....

I'm not counting this one as a fairy tale retelling, although the parallels to Sleeping Beauty are obvious, and noticed by the characters themselves--I didn't get the sense that the author intended these parallels to be any more than a metaphoric evocation, rather than a reimagining.

Time-travel through stasis occurs most often aboard space-ships (as in Across The Universe), but in my own mental checklist of what makes something truly a "time travel" book, I don't count those--these travellers don't experience the emotional discongruity, even wrongness, of being strangers in another time. Another example of stasis as time travel that meets my fuzzy definition is Frozen In Time, by Ali Sparks (my review). What do you think? Should Across the Universe count as time travel?????

Here's are two nicely contrasting reviews of A Long, Long Sleep at The Book Smugglers and at Book Monkey.

Note on age: although the characters are teenagers falling in love, there's nothing that should bring a blush to a young YA reader's checks.

(review copy received from the publisher)

Feel the Force! A physics pop-up book by Tom Adams

Feel the Force! is a physics pop-up book by Tom Adams, illustrated by Thomas Flintham (Templar, Sept. 13, 2011, 20 pages), that explains the basic concepts of physics (friction, gravity, light, sound, magnetism, movement, and electricity) in clear language that a 6-9 year old can follow. It's brightly illustrated (with pop-up elements and pull tabs), it applies the principles discussed to everyday life (well, race cars aren't an every day occurrence in my life, but you know what I mean), and it includes experiments kids can try at home to drive home the information.

Here's an example of what I think is spot-on science writing for a young kid:

"A cube of gold weighs more than a cube of steel, even though they are the same size, so gold is denser. If something is more dense than water, it'll sink. If it's less dense, it'll float. Gold is more than twice as dense as steel and almost twenty times denser than water (which is why pirate treasure always sinks)."

Here's why I particularly like it-- the contractions. So friendly.

The information is presented in your basic little text and picture clusters, making this not a book to read cover to cover, but one where you stop at each two page spread, and read the bits, and pull the tabs (they seem to be tough tabs, which is good) and talk them over, and then if you wish you can do the experiment for that section. It's a book that would work very well paired with Magic School bus, reinforcing the science behind the fiction.

In short, a very fine introduction the principles of physics, and how these principles are at work in the world around us.

If I were homeschooling, I'd build on this foundation with Physics: Why Matter Matters, one of the lovely non-fiction books by Basher, which goes into more of the sub-atomic details in a very kid friendly way (my review).

I've said it before, but sheesh. The kids of today are so lucky! When I started high school physics I had little understanding of what "physics" actually was--except that it involved math and I would probably be bad at it (I was brainwashed into thinking I was bad at math. I blame my mother (who doesn't read my blog, so that's ok)).

On the other hand, my boys (now 8 and 11) have been known to have arguments about Newtonian motion and Einstein's troubled relationship with gravity. And this is not because they are little savants, which they aren't. Nope, they simply have had access to books and non-fiction dvds (The Elegant Universe is surprisingly accessibly to the young, probably because they can suspend their disbelief).

If your kids have already watched The Elegant Universe ten times, Feel the Force! will be much too basic for them. But if they haven't....it's an excellent place to begin the exciting journey into the wonder of the universe that physics can be (if your mother doesn't tell you it is mostly math and you will be bad at it).

Note on age: the publisher recommends this one to kids 7-11, Amazon has 4-8, I say 6-9. It all depends on the kid...

For more non-fiction for kids, visit the Non-Fiction Monday round-up, hosted today by Capstone Kids.

(disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher)

The Call for Cybils Panelists has gone out!!!!

Over at the Cybils Website, the call for panelists has gone out! Here's the information on what the panelists do, and how you can put in your name to become one of them!

The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year's best children's and young adult titles. Nominations open to the public on October 1st. Panels of bloggers engage in two rounds of judging--in the first round, a group of bloggers selects a short list from all the books nominated, in the second, a different group of bloggers chooses the winner from the short list.

If you have any question about what it's like to be a first-round middle grade science fiction/fantasy panelist, feel free to email me! It is a great experience, and a lot of books to read (anyone can nominated a book in each category, so some will be excellent, some not so much).

Don't be daunted at the thought of a list of 150 or so books (the number from mg sff last year) to read, though! Chances are that if you are interested enough in a category to put your name forward, you've already read a number of the books that are going to be nominated. The organizers also seem to make sure that each category has a few fast readers in it....not everyone has to read every book, so if you are a slow (but committed) reader, don't let that stop you. If you are daunted, you can also just put in your name for consideration as a second round panelist!

Another important aspect of being a panelist is that it helps to be willing to talk about the books as you are reading them! The process is MUCH more fun and effective when panelists email each other lots, getting to know each other and making it clear which books they think are in contention (or not).

There are more people wanting to be panelists than there are slots (especially in some categories--I have a sense that YA and picture books are always popular, but I wonder how many people want to do mg sff). So don't forget to make a case for why you should be a panelist in the space provided on the application form! (The deadline to apply is September 15).

Past winners in mg sff (which split off from YA sff in 2008)

From 2010:
And from 2009, 2007, and 2008 (respectively):